Katie Hobbs defeats Kari Lake in Arizona governor’s race

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has defeated Republican Kari Lake in the 2022 gubernatorial election – the Associated Press made the race call on Monday.

“Democracy is worth the wait. Thank you Arizona I am so honored and so proud to be your next governor,” Hobbs said tweeted.

Current Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is a Republican who entered office in 2015.

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who announced last month that she was leaving the Democratic Party, had backed Lake in the Arizona gubernatorial race.

But Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney had done it said that if she lived in Arizona, she would vote for Democrats for governor and secretary of state. When an ad from a Cheney-sponsored PAC targeted Lake, the gubernatorial candidate responded by suggesting that the ad represented a “generous donation in kind” to the campaign.

“Thank you for your generous in-kind contribution to my campaign,” Lake said in a message aimed at Cheney. “Your recent TV ad asking Arizonans not to vote for me does the exact opposite. Our campaign contributions are skyrocketing and our website almost went down as people rushed to learn more about my plan to put Arizona first and join our historic political movement. ”

Arizona’s governor’s race isn’t the GOP’s only high-profile loss this year in the state — Republican nominee Blake Masters lost to incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in a US Senate contest.

“For my people who have been knocking on doors in the 115 degree heat and for the more than a million Arizonans who have put their trust in me, we will make sure every legal vote is counted,” Masters said tweeted Saturday. “If Senator Kelly ends up having more of it than I do, then I will congratulate him on a hard-fought victory. But the voters decide, not the media; let’s count the votes.”